2. Zane C. Hodges, The Gospel Under Siege (Dallas: Redención Viva, 1981), 4.
Appendix 2
The Gospel According to
Historic Chris tian ity
hose who want to eliminate Jesus' lordship from the gospel message often insinuate that it is heresy equal to Galatian legalism to demand that sinners forsake their sins, commit themselves to Christ, obey His commands, and surrender to him.1 It is a galling and reckless allegation, which indicts some of the true church's finest leaders over the span of twenty centuries.
Some attempt to portray "lordship salvation" as a new doctrine. One example is Zane Hodges, who writes:
In the same way [as fi rst-century legalism], the most telling modern assaults on the integrity of the Gospel do not deny the cruciality of faith in Christ. On the contrary, they insist on it. But to faith are added other conditions, or provisos, by which the essential nature of the Gospel is radically transformed. Oft en, in fact, a distinction is drawn between the kind of faith which saves and the kind which does not. But the kind of faith which does save is always seen to be the kind that results in some form of overt obedience. By this means, the obedience itself becomes at least an implicit part of the transaction between man and God. "Saving" faith has thus been subtly redefi ned in terms of its fruits. In the process, the unconditional freeness of the Gospel off er is seriously, if not fatally, compromised.2
So in Hodges' estimation, the concept that faith necessarily produces obedience is a new invention and a serious threat to the integrity of the gospel. He equates it with the danger posed to the early church by the Judaizers.
That is a grave charge. Is it substantiated by church history? Not at all. The truth is, what Hodges decries as a "modern assault" on the gospel is exactly what the true church has always believed. All the greatest saints throughout
1. Cf. Charles C. Ryrie, Balancing the Chris tian Life (Chicago: Moody, 1969), 170, where Ryrie writes, "Th e message of faith only and the message of faith plus commitment of life cannot both be the gospel; therefore, one of them is a false gospel and comes under the curse of perverting the gospel or preaching another gospel (Gal. 1:6 – 9)."
2. Zane C. Hodges, Th e Gospel Under Siege (Dallas: Redención Viva, 1981), 4.